Court Finds Google’s Book Scanning Is Fair Use: Highlights From The Ruling

Nearly ten years after it began and eight years after Google was sued over it, Google’s program that scans books in order to make them searchable has been found legal. A judge found fair use, especially in that “Google Books does not supersede or supplant books�because it is not a tool to be used to read books.”

The ruling by Judge Denny Chin found that the Authors Guild’s claims that Google was massively infringing the copyright of books didn’t hold up. Below, some of the key highlights from his ruling.

The Background & Permission Needed To Scan?

Most of the ruling covers the background of how Google Books works and the allegations in the case. It starts covering the two programs Google uses to gather books for Google Books:

Partner Program: First is the the Partner Program, which�started in December 2003. The ruling says 2004, probably a reference to when the program came out of beta and opened more widely to publishers. Books scanned through the partner program haven’t really been an issue because publishers or authors themselves have actively given permission for their works to be used in Google Books. From the ruling, about 2.5 million books have been scanned this way.

Library Program: With the Library Program, which began in December 2004, Google began scanning books provided by various major libraries. To date, the ruling says Google has scanned over 20 million books, in this method. Unlike the partner program, Google didn’t have express permission to scan these books. From the ruling:

Google did not seek or obtain permission from the copyright holders to digitally copy or display verbatim expressions�from�in-copyright�books.

That’s the core of this entire case. While Google didn’t get permission to scan these books, did it actually need that permission — or was its scanning covered under fair use laws?

Display Of Snippets, Not “Full View” Books

Despite what you may have heard, Google Books does not — and never did, to my knowledge — display the full text of any book that it scanned without having express permission to do so from a publisher, author or other rights-holder. Google also has “full view” copies of books for those that are clearly out of copyright.

For other books, those in copyright and obtained through the Library Program, Google will show “snippets,” short passages that match the words someone searched for within Google Books. Here’s how it looks when I did a search for words I knew would bring up a passage from “Ball Four,” one of the three books cited in the copyright infringement case against Google:

Clicking on the Ball Four link brings me to a page at Google Books showing the actual scan of that passage:

The entire text of the book isn’t shown. In fact, the publishers can even block snippets from being shown by asking that Google remove their books entirely from Google Books.

Reading Snippets Is Not Reading A Book

Could someone use the ability to view many snippets as a way of reading an entire book, or reading just the important stuff they want to avoid buying a book — especially in cases of “short text” works like recipe books? The judge didn’t buy this argument, spending time discussing Google’s security measures designed to prevent this:

Each�search generates three snippets, but by performing multiple�searches using different search terms, a single user may view far�more than three snippets, as different searches can return�different snippets. For example, by making�a series of consecutive, slightly different searches of the book�Ball Four, a single user can view many different snippets from�the book.

Google takes security measures to prevent users from�viewing a complete copy of a snippet-view book. For example, a�user cannot cause the system to return different sets of snippets�for the same search query; the position of each snippet is fixed�within the page and does not “slide” around the search term; only�the first responsive snippet available on any given page will be�returned in response to a query; one of the snippets on each page�is “black-listed,” meaning it will not be shown; and at least one�out of ten entire pages in each book is black-listed.

An “attacker” who tries�to obtain an entire book by using a physical copy of the book to�string together words appearing in successive passages would be�able to obtain at best a patchwork of snippets that would be�missing at least one snippet from every page and 10% of all�pages. In addition, works with text organized�in short “chunks,” such as dictionaries, cookbooks, and books of�haiku, are excluded from snippet view.Google Books As A Public Benefit

Next, the judge went on to highlight five main benefits of Google Books:

Easy way to find books & research informationHelps with data mining about language trends and changesExpands access to booksPreserves old and out-of-print booksHelps authors and publishers gain audience and income

A few passages about some of these benefits. Here’s one about the research importance:

Google Books has become an essential research tool, as it helps librarians identify and find research sources, it makes the process of interlibrary lending more efficient, and it�facilitates finding and checking citations.�Google Books has become such an important tool for researchers and librarians that it has been integrated into the educational system — it is taught as part of the information literacy curriculum to students at all levels.

Here’s one on book preservation:

Google Books helps to preserve books and give them new life. Older books, many of which are out-of-print books�that are falling apart buried in library stacks, are being scanned and saved. These books will now be�available, at least for search, and potential readers will be alerted to their existence.Google Books Brings New Audiences & Income To Rights-Holders

The benefits section wraps up with this key passage:

By helping readers and researchers identify books, Google Books benefits authors and publishers. When a user�clicks on a search result and is directed to an “About the Book” page, the page will offer links to sellers of the book and/or libraries listing the book as part of their collections.�The About the Book page for Ball Four, for example,�provides links to Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble.com, Books-A-Million, and IndieBound. A user could simply click�on any of these links to be directed to a website where she could purchase the book. Hence, Google Books will generate new�audiences and create new sources of income.

Here’s how those links look, by the way:

Yes, Scanning Is Fair Use

After some further discussion of the history of the case, which was restarted after a proposed settlementfell-through in 2011, the judge explains that that when it comes to whether the book scanning is fair use, he finds that it is:

The sole issue now before the Court is whether Google’s�use of the copyrighted works is “fair use” under the copyright laws. For the reasons set forth below, I conclude that it is.Google Books Is Transformative

One of four factors the judge says in determining if something is fair use is whether copyrighted material has been transformed into something unique, in a way that adds value to the original without replacing it. On this, Judge Chin is convinced.�He notes that Google Books uses the book content to make a book discovery and research tool:

Google’s use of the copyrighted works is highly�transformative.�Google Books digitizes books and transforms expressive text into a comprehensive word index that helps readers, scholars, researchers, and others find books….

Words in�books are being used in a way they have not been used before.�Google Books has created something new in the use of book�text — the frequency of words and trends in their usage provide substantive information.

The section on transformation goes on to say that just because Google is a for-profit service, that doesn’t outweigh the ability for fair use to apply. Transformation is also seen as a factor “strongly” in favor of a fair use finding.

Google Books Is Not A Book-Reading Service

One passage in the transformation section seemed so key to me that I’m bolding it below:

Google Books does not supersede or supplant books because it is not a tool to be used to read books. Instead, it�”adds value to the original” and allows for “the creation of new information, new aesthetics, new insights and understandings.”�Hence, the use is transformative.

I’ve written about Google’s book scanning efforts, and the cases against it, from the very start. Over the years, it is extremely common to find those who oppose it to suggest things that are simply not true, chiefly that Google makes copies of books and puts them online for anyone to read.

Except where it has clear permission, Google doesn’t do this. And the judge seems to fully understand that copying books so that people can research what’s within a broad collection is not the same as somehow publishing a digital library that anyone can read.

Amount Used “Slightly Against” Google

Discussion goes on to the second factor, the nature of the works involved — fiction, non-fiction, out-of-print, and the judge says briefly that since the majority are non-fiction, that weighs in Google’s favor — and that the parties in the case further agree that this point “plays little role” in determining fair use, regardless.

Rather, the real focus is on the “amount and substantiality of the portion used” from the copyrighted works. Here, it might be seen as a slam-dunk that Google is copying entire books, so therefore, it must be guilty. But the court notes such copying may be allowed, citing some other cases and noting that the copying is “critical” for Google Books to work:

Google scans the full text of books — the entire books — and it copies verbatim expression. On the other hand, courts have held that copying the entirety of a work may still be fair use. See, e.g., Sony Corp. of Am. v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 417, 449-50 (1984); Bill Graham Archives, 448 F.3d at 613 (“copying the entirety of a work is sometimes necessary to make a fair use of the image”).

Here, as one of the keys to Google Books is its offering of full-text search of books, full-work reproduction is critical to the functioning of Google Books.

The judge also notes that Google limits what can be shown. Overall, Google is found weaker in this area, but not so weak that it trumps over the other tests:

Significantly, Google limits the amount of text it displays in response to a search.

On balance, I conclude that the third factor weighs slightly against a finding of fair use.Reasonable People Would Conclude Google Books Helps Sales

The final factor of fair use is whether the new use of works will have a negative effect on the originals. In other words, if Google Books has scanned all these books, does that mean no one will buy them? The judge doesn’t believe so:

Plaintiffs argue that Google Books will�negatively impact the market for books and that Google’s scans will serve as a “market replacement” for books.�It also argues that users could put in multiple searches,�varying slightly the search terms, to access an entire book. Neither suggestion makes sense.

He goes on to explain how difficult it would be for someone to use Google Books as a means to actually read a book:

Nor is it likely that�someone would take the time and energy to input countless searches to try and get enough snippets to comprise an entire book. Not only is that not possible as certain pages and�snippets are blacklisted, the individual would have�to have a copy of the book in his possession already to be able to piece the different snippets together in coherent fashion.

In conclusion, he thinks anyone who is “reasonable” would find Google Books actually helps sales:

To the contrary, a reasonable factfinder could only find that Google Books enhances the sales of books to the benefit of copyright holders. An important factor in the success of an�individual title is whether it is discovered — whether potential readers learn of its existence.�Google Books provides a way for authors’ works to become�noticed, much like traditional in-store book displays.

Indeed, both librarians and their patrons use Google Books to identify books to purchase.�Many authors have noted that�online browsing in general and Google Books in particular helps readers find their work, thus increasing their audiences. Further, Google provides convenient links to booksellers to make it easy for a reader to order a book.“No Doubt But That Google Books Improves Books Sales”

The judge concludes with strong statement that there’s no doubt that Google Books helps the sales of books, leading him to find on this fourth point in favor of fair use:

In this day and age of�on-line shopping, there can be no doubt but that Google Books improves books sales. Hence, I conclude that the fourth factor weighs strongly in favor of a finding of fair use.The Broader Implication: Search Engines Are Safe, Too

The ruling provides a sum-up of what was previously said but doesn’t really add more other than to grant summary judgement in Google’s favor. The Authors Guild can appeal and has posted to its site that it will.

The ruling also provides, if upheld, an important precedent for Google’s “scanning” of the web. Because that’s what search engines like Google and Bing do, make copies of pages from across the web in a similar manner to how Google copied books.

There have been a few minor cases against web indexing over the years, but no one has seriously challenged a search engine from indexing documents, primarily in my view because it’s easy for rights-holders to opt-out and because they don’t, wanting the traffic.

But should such a case happen in the future, the Google Books ruling will be instrumental in any court fight.

For more about the case, see additional coverage at Techmeme. Jeff John Roberts has a nice write-up at GigaOm�with some reaction tweets, and he’s made a copy of the case availble here:

Google Books ruling on fair use.pdf by jeff_roberts881

5 Key Takeaways from SES Chicago 2013

SES Chicago wrapped up last week and with it, the 2014 conference season is coming to a close. It's been a whirlwind of a year for search marketing.

If you weren't able to join us in the Windy City, or even if you did but couldn't clone yourself to attend all of the great sessions, don't fret: Here are five key takeaways from SES Chicago 2013 that you may have missed.

1. You Must Listen to Your Users

Everyone is searching for new ways to capture traffic and open up revenue possibilities, and one of the easiest ways to do that is by listening to your users and giving them what they want.

Every $1 invested in user experience (UX) yields a $100 return, and incorporating UX into your SEO tactics is easier than you may think. You don't have to be a designer; you just have to know the questions to ask.

Start by understanding your users' shopping habits: How and when do they buy this product or service? When do you use this product? What do you look for in these products? How would you search for this product if you didn't know its name?

Follow up these questions with usability tests to better understand how people interact with your site. You'll be able to see what frustrates them and what they expect to change. Give it to them, and they'll be more likely to convert.

2. Good Content Isn't Going Anywhere; Plan on it

I was fortunate to moderate a dream team lineup of speakers with Chris Boggs from Internet Marketing Ninjas and Jordan Slabaugh from Spreadfast where we dived into how to actually plan your content effectively.

Everyone knows content is important, but content isn't one size fits all. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SERPs: All distribute content differently, and all have people absorb content differently.

While that does mean a unique message for every channel, it doesn't mean unique content. Focus on rinsing, reusing, recycling and repackaging your content because every piece of content should have at least three uses.

Take your 40-page whitepaper download and condense it to a 1,000 word blog post with the high points. Then take that blog post, and create bite-sized nuggets that you can share as tips on your social media.

3. Paid Ads Help Amplify Your Content

Where Slabaugh wrapped up with how to plan across your channels, Boggs stepped in and focused on what to do with your content after it's been produced. We fall victim to the "If you post it, they will come," ideology, but unless you already have a steadfast following, you're not going to get a lot of traction just by sharing it on your social networks.

Connecting your social, search, and content efforts centers around owning the SERP for that particular content query. Tweets and Google+ updates are getting indexed alongside your blog post, but one area with tons of growing room is paid search for your content, which will give you immediate visibility.

Oreo doesn't own any of the SERP (content) for the brand-related query, and they're missing out on a huge slice of traffic because of it. Furthermore, there isn't anyone bidding on the query, which is still getting search interest 11 months later.

4. Use the Right Metrics for the Right People.

Search marketers are no strangers to fighting for budgets, but now that SEO has oozed its way into the boardroom, there's more pressure on us to not only report, but analyze, all while tailoring our metrics to the right people.

Ryan Jones from SapientNitro and Alan K'necht from Digital Always Media broke it down. Basically, talking to C-suites is like talking to children. They don't bog them down with SEO acronyms or jargon; cut to the chase, talk to them simply, and always focus on ROI.

"The only thing the C level cares about is 'Am I spending my money effectively?'" Ryan said.

Furthermore, remember the critical difference between reporting and analytics. Reporting says what the number is, anyone can do that. Analytics tells you what that number means and what to do with it. For example:

Don't just say visits increased 15 percent, forms submitted increased 10 percent, and bounce rate decreased 15 percent. Follow it up with why – "We launched a PPC campaign with a targeted landing page and one-click CTA for Product A" – and what you're going to do about it – "We're going to duplicate that success to Product B and expect to see similar results."

5. Twitter Lead Generation Cards are serious business.

"Your content isn't the problem. You are."

That's how John Lee from Webtrends kicked off in perhaps my favorite session from the week where he showed a case study on Twitter Lead Generation Cards and how B2B social media is done the right way.

We're automatically assuming that the content is crappy if people aren't engaging with us on social media, but that's not always the case. Sometimes, it's us: the wording we use, the time of day we post, the overly self-promotion. You could have the best content in the world, but if you're failing on implementation and execution then no one is going to see it.

Twitter's Lead Generation Cards help you on the implementation by bringing rich experiences directly to a user's Twitter stream. For example:

This takes the lead nurturing cycle down from two clicks – clicking on the Tweet to bring you to a landing page and clicking on the CTA on the landing page – down to one click. Everything the user needs to sign up, everything you need to capture their information, is right there in Twitter. Plus, it eliminates forms by prepopulating their username and email address. Brilliant.

Webtrends used this to promote their case studies and whitepapers and saw 50 to 200 percent higher open rate than other lead and 3-4 times improvement on click-through rates. Be sure to read more about the case study here.

Did I miss something? What were your biggest takeaways from SES Chicago 2013?

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Feb. 10-13, 2014: This year's SES London agenda focuses on aligning paid, owned and earned media to help you drive quality traffic and increase conversions.
Register early and save!
*Saver Rate ends Dec 13.

5 Content Marketing Myths That Need to Die

In 2013 content marketing has finally progressed from a buzzword to a legitimate mainstream marketing strategy, and we can expect more such validation in 2014. If you're a brand thinking about investing in content marketing, don't fall for any of these content marketing misconceptions.

Myth 1: Content Marketing is Easy (Compared to Other Forms of Promotion)

Content marketing relies on the Know-Like-Trust factor, and as anyone who's ever been in any kind of relationship will attest, building trust is never easy. It takes a lifetime to build and a moment's carelessness to destroy.

While consumer relationships with brands may not always be this intense, building trust is usually an incremental process. Each piece of content you create adds another layer to the KLT pyramid.

In fact, advertising is much easier in the sense that campaigns are created, run their duration, and results are measured. In content marketing, though, you're essentially creating a lifetime campaign for however long your business will function and as such there's no end date, although there are plenty of milestones for measurement.

Trust, once lost, is much harder and painstaking to regain. Just ask British Petroleum.

On the flip side, content marketing proves again and again that companies who provide transparency and authenticity, both crucial factors for trust-building, may find a more forgiving consumer base when things go awry. Just ask Buffer.

No, content marketing isn't easy, but it is ever-so-rewarding!

Myth 2: Content Marketing Doesn't Take Much Time

"Lack of time" is cited as the top challenge facing B2B marketers, according to the 2014 B2B Content Marketing Trends report. And it's true. Let's briefly go through some of the processes involved in content marketing.

Content strategy development: This could include keyword analysis, market research, SEO, website audit, content audit, resources audit, and more. Constant content creation: This is time-intensive, thought-intensive and labor-intensive. Content distribution and promotion: This includes heavyweight time investments such as social media marketing, email marketing, and search marketing. Content performance measurement: This includes analyzing content marketing output against success metrics.

I don't know about you, but I'm not seeing how content marketing fits into a brand's shortcut strategy.

Myth 3: Content Marketing can be Automated – Set it and Forget it

Arising from the "we didn't realize content marketing would take so much time" myth is the sister myth "let's put this process on cruise control, yay!" Sure, there's plenty within content marketing that can be automated to a degree (repeat processes such as auto-responders, social monitoring and alerts, curation, and distribution), but many companies try to automate too much, too soon and in my opinion, the wrong stuff.

Some content marketing tasks which shouldn't be automated include:

Content strategy.Social media strategy.Community management.Content creation.

As Jayson DeMers predicts about content marketing trends for 2014, "businesses will look for ways to automate their content marketing, and these efforts will fail."

But my all-time favorite automation rant is from Scott Stratten, who regularly posts a variation of this update on Twitter: "Automating your social media is like sending a mannequin to a networking event."

Myth 4: Content Marketing is Inexpensive

Jay Baer phrased it well when he wrote: "Social media and content marketing isn't inexpensive, it's just different expensive."

While expense is relative, many brand managers assume that content marketing will always be the cheaper alternative to other promotional methods, such as advertising or PR. While in general, a 30-second TV commercial during the Super Bowl could rack up millions compared to a hashtag promo contest on Twitter which could be done for free, comparing such promotional activities is weird. And wrong.

While technology has leveled the playing field in that both big and small brands can achieve results with content marketing, brands are investing widely different amounts depending on perceived value. For example, Orabrush surprisingly achieved great content marketing results with a $500 YouTube video while Neil Patel famously invests five-figure sums for QuickSprout's free educational video content.

Barring unexpected viral hits, most content marketing success will be realized over years of consistent brand building activities and should be budgeted for as such.

"B2B marketers allocate 30% of their budgets to content marketing, and 58% of marketers plan to increase content market spend over the next 12 months," according to the 2014 B2B Content Marketing study.

Myth 5: Content Marketing can be Handled by the Intern

When social media was still a thrill-seeker's term, there were a plethora of articles begging companies not to hand over social media marketing activities based on age. The same holds true of content marketing today. Companies believing that young and inexperienced hired hands can come in and "handle" content strategy and marketing have got another think coming.

Content marketing is a discipline in its own right. It's got its sea legs and is here to stay. And it's attracting top talent from across industries: from journalists and reporters to create content, to analytics specialists to make sense of the data, to digital strategists to concoct tactical plans. In 2014, content marketing is expected to bring forth more specialized job descriptions and be taken seriously by companies still waiting at the shoreline.

Are there any content marketing misconceptions in your mind? Let's hear them in the comments!

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Feb. 10-13, 2014: This year's SES London agenda focuses on aligning paid, owned and earned media to help you drive quality traffic and increase conversions.
Register early and save!
*Saver Rate ends Dec 13.

Online Marketing News: Creating Knockout Infographics, Must Have Google+ Tools, Facebook Star Ratings, Real Time Social Monitoring

7 Super Tips for Creating Powerful Infographics � What better way to demonstrate the power of the infographic than with an infographic! Follow these steps to consider when planning, creating and sharing infographics that get shared and drive traffic on the visual web. Create knockout infographics that can give your marketing a visual flair. Entrepreneur

How Facebook is Building a Global Marketing Ecosystem Around its Products � Facebook�s Preferred Marketing Developer (PMD) network has been around in its current form since April 2012. The aim of the group is to help connect brands and advertisers with developers who can make their marketing campaigns more engaging and comprehensive. Read the interview with Mike Randall, new global head of PMD, to learn what changes we can expect from this program next year. TheNextWeb

5 Tools to Measure Your Marketing Success on Google+ � If you�re among the marketers who are still figuring out the best way to use Google+, use these 5 tools to measure your effective content marketing efforts. Content Marketing Institute

Study: Google’s Enhanced Campaigns Even Out PPC Responses � Paid search click-through rates on tablet computers were 27.0% higher than on desktops, compared with 51.0% higher in the year-earlier period. The study also found that smartphone search budgets continue to rise, hitting 12.6% of all paid search expenditures. B2B Magazine

B2B Marketers Find Success With Content Marketing � [Infographic] As marketers get savvier with the strategies they use to distribute their content, which tactics, platforms, and trends are garnering the greatest benefits?� LinkedIn team up with MarketingProfs and the Content Marketing Institute to answer this question. Check it out. MarketingTech Blog

Google+ Commenting is Now Live on YouTube � YouTube has been pushing people to tie their YouTube account to their Google+ account for many months and now they�re making it even harder to say no. This new feature allows you to direct your comments to your Google+ friends with a tag mention. Marketing Pilgrim

4 Social Analytics Tips to Improve Your Social Media Marketing � Track the right metrics for your community and you�ll better understand how and when to share information, as well as what type of content drives the most traffic to your website. SocialMedia Examiner

Facebook Tests Star Ratings Displayed On Pages � Screenshots and live testing show that Facebook has turned on the star rating display for at least a small subsection of users, providing information to network users that goes beyond the basic Like. Using a star system for place and page ratings isn�t entirely new. What is new is making this information explicitly displayed on the social network itself, in a prominent place on a business or place Page. Read the full implications here. TechCrunch

How to Use Social Media Monitoring to Generate Viable Leads � 68% of marketers claim to have created leads from social media sites and 55% have closed deals found from a social media lead. Learn how to how to navigate the key areas of creating a lead generation campaign, in order to assist in the finding of viable leads for your business. eConsultancy

Study: Only 8% Of Brands Believe Its Marketing Team Is Strong Across All Digital Marketing Channels � New research by OMI, in partnership with ClickZ and Kelly Staffing, reveals Fortune 500 companies and global agencies face a serious digital marketing skills shortage. While the skill level is inflated and talent is slim, there are opportunities for brands that are proactive. Read more here. OnlineMarketingInstitute

The Beginner�s Guide to Facebook�s Edgerank � What does it take to really understand the hundreds of factors that contribute to Facebook�s news feed algorithm? Here�s the latest research telling us which four are the most important. Buffer

6 Steps for Successful Content Marketing Using SlideShare’s Search � Think of SlideShare�s link juice as rocket fuel for SEO. All you need is a coordinated plan to start borrowing some of the professional network�s search clout. Content Marketing Institute

4 Tips for Monitoring Your Social Campaign in Real Time � Social media gives companies huge marketing opportunities, but also challenges them to stay up to minute on the second-by-second social interaction consumers are having with their brand. Launching a social marketing campaign and not tracking it in real-time can backfire. SmartBlogs

Google+ Quietly Introduces New Share and +1 Buttons � Google employee Paul Lindner posted about them in the Developing with Google+ community on Google+. He says that the +1 and Share buttons are now consistent with the Follow and Badge widgets. MarketingLand

Marketing Lessons From a Garage Sale � No matter how sophisticated the world becomes, the fundamentals of buying and selling never change. Read these six lessons learned from this marketer and home owner. BusinessWeek

LinkedIn Unveils Major Pulse Integration, Replaces LinkedIn Today – LinkedIn announced that its popular news curation feature, LinkedIn Today, has been replaced on both desktop and mobile by Pulse, which now provides the back end technology for all content surfacing on the platform. The transition comes alongside an update to the Pulse mobile app, which will more tightly integrate the news reader with LinkedIn. Mashable

Report: Survey Finds Social Media and SEO Drive Inbound Marketing � 21% of marketers report that social media has become more important over the past six months. The HubSpot research shows that inbound marketing dominates lead sources, with social media and SEO driving the highest level of leads with each driving 14% of all leads. SocialMediaToday

3 Simple Ways to Incorporate Your Influencers into Your Blog Posts � As you read your influencers� content, look for opportunities to incorporate their work into articles on your own blog. Keep your eyes peeled for good questions in their content. Read more tips here. Traackr

15 Greatest Marketing Innovations of All Time � History’s greatest contributions to the fine art of connecting buyers and sellers. What did they miss? Inc.

Twitter Announces Custom Timelines For Hashtags or Topics on Tweetdeck � This will allow people to create powerful streams of information out of Twitter�s public fire hose, effectively allowing anyone to curate individual streams of data tailored to a topic. The ability to create custom timelines in Tweetdeck is rolling out slowly, so not everyone will have it right away. It also offers a bunch of customization options for people that use Twitter for information gathering. TechCrunch

From the Online Community

From “Content Marketing with Interactive Tools: Pros, Cons, Examples & Best Practices,” Mark said, I have been wondering how to make my website more sticky. I believe this post has provided the answer. It should have been obvious, because that is the reason I return to my favorite site. Thank you for an information-packed post.

Guest said, While I’m not sure what the next generation of interactive tools looks like, I can only imagine that they will become more advanced.

A great example of an interactive tool that I use on a daily basis is Pixlr. I know by looking at the three options on the homepage (Editor, Exprss or O-Matic) which one I will need for any given photograph. The whole editing process is smooth and easy to use.

P.S. I think you’ve got it right when you say we need to create “experiences” with our customers not just content. This is what will keep them coming back and build loyalty.

Thanks for sharing!

From “It�s Not the Moment, It�s the Story � A Bigger Picture View of Personal Social Media Participation,” Sean Raulsen said, Very timely, man. Thanks! I was just thinking about the growing number of social media platforms, and whether it’s really necessary to have a presence on all of them. Your article serves as a great reminder to step back, and to think about what tools you want to utilize to assist in presenting your story to others.

Barbara Mckinney said, The division between storytelling and marketing has dissolved. Stories play on people�s fears and emotions. With stories, brands connect with readers on a more human level.

What’s Your Take?

When you look at the cumulative effect of social media participation, does it make your decision to jump on board and stay connected easier? Think of each social interaction as a pixel; over time, what you’ll see is a dynamic portrait of a person or a brand.

10 Google Analytics Advanced Segments That Reveal Search & Social ROI

Web analytics expert and Google's Digital Marketing Evangelist Avinash Kaushik once said, "All data in aggregate is crap," because insights aren't found when looking at large amounts of data, but rather through focusing on important segments.

Lucky for us, Google Analytics advanced segments received an extensive update back in July, and the new features can be used to create segments that highlight your best-performing inbound efforts. Let's start with a refresher about what has changed and then explore 10 Google Analytics advanced segments that reveal search and social ROI.

User Segmentation and Other New Segmentation Features

The interface for Google Analytics advanced segments isn't the only thing to be re-imagined. In fact, the very way segments are calculated changed. To illustrate what this means, let's go visual.

This graphic represents a visitor and her behavior on an imaginary website throughout three visits.

The smallest bars for our visitor represent data at the hit level, which occurs each time the Google Analytics scripts fire as a visitor navigates your website. Page views, events, goal completions, and other metrics are hit-level metrics.

The medium-sized bars represent data collected from the visitor that is at the session, or visit level. Metrics at this level include a landing page URL, campaign source, conversion rate and time on site. Google Analytics has traditionally segmented data up to this level, leaving us to report success solely based on the visits where conversion occurred.

The new Google Analytics advanced segments allow you to reveal visitor insights across multiple visits and tie the customer journey together. Visitor-level data includes lifetime value, campaign source of first visit, days to purchase, etc. – the type of metrics that allow you to look at multi-visit and multi-channel data and the cumulative effects of your marketing efforts. For the first time, we can see the complete journey of our visitors in Google Analytics.

The new multi-channel segmentation capabilities are best demonstrated by looking at some common scenarios in search and social media campaigns. Let's take a look at some advanced segments, sequences and cohorts made possible by the new framework.

10 Search & Social Google Analytics Advanced Segments

I polled the audience at SES Chicago during my presentation on Google Analytics advanced segments and asked how many people had noticed the new advanced segments features. A few people raised their hands.

I then asked attendees how many had seen the real-time reports. Everyone raised their hands. This is a shame considering real-time analytics is eye candy while segmentation can be business-changing.

Here are 10 Google Analytics advanced segments featuring user segmentation, sequence building, and cohorts, which will help you string together the value of organic search and social media strategies over the course of multiple visits.

1. Organic Search as the First Interaction

How is organic search contributing to the acquisition of new visitors to the top of the funnel?

This segment is handy when organic search isn't getting its fair share of credit in last-click reports. The first step toward better attribution is a conversation around which channels are driving value throughout the sales funnel, from the first visit to the last click.

Recreate this advanced segment: http://bit.ly/organic-1st

2. Organic Search as Any Interaction

Similar to the first segment, this one looks across all of your visitors and isolates those who have been to your site through an organic search visit at least once in their visit history.

Recreate this advanced segment: http://bit.ly/organic-any

3. Social Media as the First Interaction

This advanced segment helps illustrate social media's ability to acquire new visitors through content marketing, events and other community-related efforts by driving traffic from Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and other social media websites.

This segment uses a little regex to bunch social media sources together. Use it as is or modify it yourself if you see a network that's missing.

Recreate this advanced segment: http://bit.ly/social-1st

4. Social Media as Any Interaction

This segment allows users to identify visitors who have started a visit on your website as a result of a social media network.

Get a better idea for how your community management efforts are paying off with social media as a whole, or save a copy of this segment for each social network to see where the core of your community plays the most.

Recreate this advanced segment: http://bit.ly/social-any

5. Blog as the First Interaction

More and more, a website's blog accounts for anywhere between 10 and 75 percent of the total traffic on a domain, depending on the level of engagement on the blog and other areas of the site.

This segment identifies visitors whose first interaction on the website began with a visit to your blog. This segment is set up to capture landing pages containing the word "blog," so feel free to change it accordingly if your blog has as different article navigation structure.

Recreate this advanced segment: http://bit.ly/blog-1st

6. People Who Have Converted on Your Website and Who Have Also Been to Your Blog

If you're building out a content marketing strategy on a website involving content at every phase of the sales funnel, this is the segment for you.

How many of the monthly converters on your website started at the top of the funnel and made it all the way down to a conversion activity? If this is a relatively large percentage of your converters, you're doing OK. If only 5-10 percent of people have seen your content marketing efforts, keep trying.

Recreate this advanced segment: http://bit.ly/blog-converters

7. Visitors Through Both Paid and Organic Search

This segment demonstrates the interplay between organic and paid search by only showing those visitors who have been to your website through both a paid and organic search visit.

Note: In this example, "Banner" is a medium assigned to all display ads for a site I manage. This segment groups together all pay-per-click search traffic and all search-based display into a paid search segment. You can do the same on your website by being aware of the paid search query parameters for your display advertising.

Recreate this advanced segment: http://bit.ly/both-searches

8. Ebook Downloads or Other Micro-Conversions

Sometimes you'll want to track things from one profile within another profile, such as tracking micro-conversions within your main ecommerce or lead generation profile. In cases like this, take the thank-you page URLs corresponding to all of your micro-conversions and put them into a regular expression when creating your new segment. You'll be able to see how many of your ebook/whitepaper downloads or other micro-conversions fare in the grand scheme of things.

Recreate this advanced segment: http://bit.ly/eBook-downloaders

9. Converters Where the First Interaction Was Organic Search

You probably know what your overall share of revenue is based on in your company's last-click attribution model. But what if you also knew how many people converted on your site where organic search was the first visit on your site?

Similar to the first segment in our series, this segment narrows traffic down to seeing visitors who were introduced to your website via organic search and then went on to convert in that or a subsequent visit.

Recreate this advanced segment: http://bit.ly/organic-1st-touch-conv

10. Conversion Cohorts

Last but not least is a series of four segments that let you cohort the experience of visitors who convert over the course of several visits.

The conversion cohorts segment series allows you to create a segment that shows all visitors with a conversion, converting visitors on their first visit, converting visitors on their second through third visit, and converting visitors in their fourth or greater visit.

It is amazing in this segment to see how the behavior of visitors changes as they make their way through your content strategy and website navigation.

Recreate this segment: http://bit.ly/conversion-cohorts

Summary

Segmentation is one of the most powerful tools we have in analytics, and user segmentation takes what we've been getting to an entirely new level.

What's your favorite new Google Analytics advanced segment that utilizes sequences, user data and/or cohorts? More importantly, what decisions have you been able to drive in your organization as a result of this segmentation?

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Court Finds Google’s Book Scanning Is Fair Use: Highlights From The Ruling

Nearly ten years after it began and eight years after Google was sued over it, Google’s program that scans books in order to make them searchable has been found legal. A judge found fair use, especially in that “Google Books does not supersede or supplant books�because it is not a tool to be used to read books.”

The ruling by Judge Denny Chin found that the Authors Guild’s claims that Google was massively infringing the copyright of books didn’t hold up. Below, some of the key highlights from his ruling.

The Background & Permission Needed To Scan?

Most of the ruling covers the background of how Google Books works and the allegations in the case. It starts covering the two programs Google uses to gather books for Google Books:

Partner Program: First is the the Partner Program, which�started in December 2003. The ruling says 2004, probably a reference to when the program came out of beta and opened more widely to publishers. Books scanned through the partner program haven’t really been an issue because publishers or authors themselves have actively given permission for their works to be used in Google Books. From the ruling, about 2.5 million books have been scanned this way.

Library Program: With the Library Program, which began in December 2004, Google began scanning books provided by various major libraries. To date, the ruling says Google has scanned over 20 million books, in this method. Unlike the partner program, Google didn’t have express permission to scan these books. From the ruling:

Google did not seek or obtain permission from the copyright holders to digitally copy or display verbatim expressions�from�in-copyright�books.

That’s the core of this entire case. While Google didn’t get permission to scan these books, did it actually need that permission — or was its scanning covered under fair use laws?

Display Of Snippets, Not “Full View” Books

Despite what you may have heard, Google Books does not — and never did, to my knowledge — display the full text of any book that it scanned without having express permission to do so from a publisher, author or other rights-holder. Google also has “full view” copies of books for those that are clearly out of copyright.

For other books, those in copyright and obtained through the Library Program, Google will show “snippets,” short passages that match the words someone searched for within Google Books. Here’s how it looks when I did a search for words I knew would bring up a passage from “Ball Four,” one of the three books cited in the copyright infringement case against Google:

Clicking on the Ball Four link brings me to a page at Google Books showing the actual scan of that passage:

The entire text of the book isn’t shown. In fact, the publishers can even block snippets from being shown by asking that Google remove their books entirely from Google Books.

Reading Snippets Is Not Reading A Book

Could someone use the ability to view many snippets as a way of reading an entire book, or reading just the important stuff they want to avoid buying a book — especially in cases of “short text” works like recipe books? The judge didn’t buy this argument, spending time discussing Google’s security measures designed to prevent this:

Each�search generates three snippets, but by performing multiple�searches using different search terms, a single user may view far�more than three snippets, as different searches can return�different snippets. For example, by making�a series of consecutive, slightly different searches of the book�Ball Four, a single user can view many different snippets from�the book.

Google takes security measures to prevent users from�viewing a complete copy of a snippet-view book. For example, a�user cannot cause the system to return different sets of snippets�for the same search query; the position of each snippet is fixed�within the page and does not “slide” around the search term; only�the first responsive snippet available on any given page will be�returned in response to a query; one of the snippets on each page�is “black-listed,” meaning it will not be shown; and at least one�out of ten entire pages in each book is black-listed.

An “attacker” who tries�to obtain an entire book by using a physical copy of the book to�string together words appearing in successive passages would be�able to obtain at best a patchwork of snippets that would be�missing at least one snippet from every page and 10% of all�pages. In addition, works with text organized�in short “chunks,” such as dictionaries, cookbooks, and books of�haiku, are excluded from snippet view.Google Books As A Public Benefit

Next, the judge went on to highlight five main benefits of Google Books:

Easy way to find books & research informationHelps with data mining about language trends and changesExpands access to booksPreserves old and out-of-print booksHelps authors and publishers gain audience and income

A few passages about some of these benefits. Here’s one about the research importance:

Google Books has become an essential research tool, as it helps librarians identify and find research sources, it makes the process of interlibrary lending more efficient, and it�facilitates finding and checking citations.�Google Books has become such an important tool for researchers and librarians that it has been integrated into the educational system — it is taught as part of the information literacy curriculum to students at all levels.

Here’s one on book preservation:

Google Books helps to preserve books and give them new life. Older books, many of which are out-of-print books�that are falling apart buried in library stacks, are being scanned and saved. These books will now be�available, at least for search, and potential readers will be alerted to their existence.Google Books Brings New Audiences & Income To Rights-Holders

The benefits section wraps up with this key passage:

By helping readers and researchers identify books, Google Books benefits authors and publishers. When a user�clicks on a search result and is directed to an “About the Book” page, the page will offer links to sellers of the book and/or libraries listing the book as part of their collections.�The About the Book page for Ball Four, for example,�provides links to Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble.com, Books-A-Million, and IndieBound. A user could simply click�on any of these links to be directed to a website where she could purchase the book. Hence, Google Books will generate new�audiences and create new sources of income.

Here’s how those links look, by the way:

Yes, Scanning Is Fair Use

After some further discussion of the history of the case, which was restarted after a proposed settlementfell-through in 2011, the judge explains that that when it comes to whether the book scanning is fair use, he finds that it is:

The sole issue now before the Court is whether Google’s�use of the copyrighted works is “fair use” under the copyright laws. For the reasons set forth below, I conclude that it is.Google Books Is Transformative

One of four factors the judge says in determining if something is fair use is whether copyrighted material has been transformed into something unique, in a way that adds value to the original without replacing it. On this, Judge Chin is convinced.�He notes that Google Books uses the book content to make a book discovery and research tool:

Google’s use of the copyrighted works is highly�transformative.�Google Books digitizes books and transforms expressive text into a comprehensive word index that helps readers, scholars, researchers, and others find books….

Words in�books are being used in a way they have not been used before.�Google Books has created something new in the use of book�text — the frequency of words and trends in their usage provide substantive information.

The section on transformation goes on to say that just because Google is a for-profit service, that doesn’t outweigh the ability for fair use to apply. Transformation is also seen as a factor “strongly” in favor of a fair use finding.

Google Books Is Not A Book-Reading Service

One passage in the transformation section seemed so key to me that I’m bolding it below:

Google Books does not supersede or supplant books because it is not a tool to be used to read books. Instead, it�”adds value to the original” and allows for “the creation of new information, new aesthetics, new insights and understandings.”�Hence, the use is transformative.

I’ve written about Google’s book scanning efforts, and the cases against it, from the very start. Over the years, it is extremely common to find those who oppose it to suggest things that are simply not true, chiefly that Google makes copies of books and puts them online for anyone to read.

Except where it has clear permission, Google doesn’t do this. And the judge seems to fully understand that copying books so that people can research what’s within a broad collection is not the same as somehow publishing a digital library that anyone can read.

Amount Used “Slightly Against” Google

Discussion goes on to the second factor, the nature of the works involved — fiction, non-fiction, out-of-print, and the judge says briefly that since the majority are non-fiction, that weighs in Google’s favor — and that the parties in the case further agree that this point “plays little role” in determining fair use, regardless.

Rather, the real focus is on the “amount and substantiality of the portion used” from the copyrighted works. Here, it might be seen as a slam-dunk that Google is copying entire books, so therefore, it must be guilty. But the court notes such copying may be allowed, citing some other cases and noting that the copying is “critical” for Google Books to work:

Google scans the full text of books — the entire books — and it copies verbatim expression. On the other hand, courts have held that copying the entirety of a work may still be fair use. See, e.g., Sony Corp. of Am. v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 417, 449-50 (1984); Bill Graham Archives, 448 F.3d at 613 (“copying the entirety of a work is sometimes necessary to make a fair use of the image”).

Here, as one of the keys to Google Books is its offering of full-text search of books, full-work reproduction is critical to the functioning of Google Books.

The judge also notes that Google limits what can be shown. Overall, Google is found weaker in this area, but not so weak that it trumps over the other tests:

Significantly, Google limits the amount of text it displays in response to a search.

On balance, I conclude that the third factor weighs slightly against a finding of fair use.Reasonable People Would Conclude Google Books Helps Sales

The final factor of fair use is whether the new use of works will have a negative effect on the originals. In other words, if Google Books has scanned all these books, does that mean no one will buy them? The judge doesn’t believe so:

Plaintiffs argue that Google Books will�negatively impact the market for books and that Google’s scans will serve as a “market replacement” for books.�It also argues that users could put in multiple searches,�varying slightly the search terms, to access an entire book. Neither suggestion makes sense.

He goes on to explain how difficult it would be for someone to use Google Books as a means to actually read a book:

Nor is it likely that�someone would take the time and energy to input countless searches to try and get enough snippets to comprise an entire book. Not only is that not possible as certain pages and�snippets are blacklisted, the individual would have�to have a copy of the book in his possession already to be able to piece the different snippets together in coherent fashion.

In conclusion, he thinks anyone who is “reasonable” would find Google Books actually helps sales:

To the contrary, a reasonable factfinder could only find that Google Books enhances the sales of books to the benefit of copyright holders. An important factor in the success of an�individual title is whether it is discovered — whether potential readers learn of its existence.�Google Books provides a way for authors’ works to become�noticed, much like traditional in-store book displays.

Indeed, both librarians and their patrons use Google Books to identify books to purchase.�Many authors have noted that�online browsing in general and Google Books in particular helps readers find their work, thus increasing their audiences. Further, Google provides convenient links to booksellers to make it easy for a reader to order a book.“No Doubt But That Google Books Improves Books Sales”

The judge concludes with strong statement that there’s no doubt that Google Books helps the sales of books, leading him to find on this fourth point in favor of fair use:

In this day and age of�on-line shopping, there can be no doubt but that Google Books improves books sales. Hence, I conclude that the fourth factor weighs strongly in favor of a finding of fair use.The Broader Implication: Search Engines Are Safe, Too

The ruling provides a sum-up of what was previously said but doesn’t really add more other than to grant summary judgement in Google’s favor. The Authors Guild can appeal and has posted to its site that it will.

The ruling also provides, if upheld, an important precedent for Google’s “scanning” of the web. Because that’s what search engines like Google and Bing do, make copies of pages from across the web in a similar manner to how Google copied books.

There have been a few minor cases against web indexing over the years, but no one has seriously challenged a search engine from indexing documents, primarily in my view because it’s easy for rights-holders to opt-out and because they don’t, wanting the traffic.

But should such a case happen in the future, the Google Books ruling will be instrumental in any court fight.

For more about the case, see additional coverage at Techmeme. Jeff John Roberts has a nice write-up at GigaOm�with some reaction tweets, and he’s made a copy of the case availble here:

Google Books ruling on fair use.pdf by jeff_roberts881

MapQuest Aims For Revival With New Mobile App

Once the leader and innovator in online mapping, MapQuest has fallen pretty far from that perch. While the�brand survives and the site is still widely used, it has for several years been overshadowed by rivals including Google and more recently Apple.

According to recent comScore data MapQuest’s mobile apps aren’t in the top 15, although AOL is a top 10 mobile web property. MapQuest parent AOL has shown itself to be ambivalent about the site, having made a couple of unsuccessful attempts to sell it in the past.

There have also been attempts to reinvigorate MapQuest from time to time.�In that spirit come new mobile apps. The new iPhone app (I haven’t tried Android yet)�represents a significant UI improvement over the previous version.

Among the changes and updates are the following:

Better looking mapsDynamic traffic conditionsHome/work bookmarkingLocation sharingAuto-muting of voice-guided directions

I briefly tested it and found the UI to be much cleaner and visually pleasing. Certain things about the app, however, weren’t entirely intuitive to me. I also didn’t find complete business profile pages (only phone the ability to initiate a call and get directions).

But before passing judgment I need to use it more thoroughly.

One of the most interesting things about the new app is that you can pay $3.99 and get rid of all ads for the year. If you’re a MapQuest user it’s probably well worth it.

MapQuest users will probably be pleased with the UI improvements. However, so far at least, I haven’t seen anything in the new app to pull people away from Google or Apple Maps.

October Search Market Share: Bing Continues To Grow At Yahoo’s Expense

Preliminary October search market share data from comScore are being exposed by financial analysts. We’ll have to wait for the official numbers either later today or tomorrow. However, it appears there is little change from last month: Google is flat, Bing gained a fraction of a point and Yahoo lost two-tenths of a percent.

More broadly, however, the numbers reflect a long-term trend toward Bing and away from Yahoo. Google remains largely untouched. Below�are the October figures we’ve seen:

Google — October: 66.9 percent; September: 66.9 percent; August: 66.9 percentBing�– October 18.1 percent; September: 18 percent; August: 17.8 percentYahoo�– October 11.1 percent; September: 11.3 percent; August: 11.4 percent

We didn’t see any numbers reported for Ask and AOL. Between the two they divide 3.9 percent of the US market for October. Here are last month’s figures for the two:

Ask�–�September: �2.5 percent; August: 2.6 percentAOL�– September: �1.3 percent; August: 1.3 percent

Mobile market share and traffic are not reflected in the above figures.

According to StatCounter mobile now drives nearly 20 percent of global internet traffic on average. The aggregate number in the US is roughly 15 percent. But in certain categories the percentage of traffic coming from mobile devices is north of 35 or 40 percent (even higher in some local contexts).

In terms of US mobile search share StatCounter offers the following breakdown:

Google — 88.1 percentYahoo — 8.1 percentBing — 3.4 percentAll others — 0.4 percent

Last week we discussed the rumor that Microsoft CEO candidate Stephen Elop would be open to selling Bing. That would certainly shake up the market if the rumor were true and Elop became the CEO. But right now it’s nothing more than pure speculation.

Postscript: comScore has posted the official October numbers.

It’s Not the Moment, It’s the Story – A Bigger Picture View of Personal Social Media Participation

My favorite personal socnet: Instagram!

Social media technologies and platforms are now everywhere internet connectivity exists: desktop, tablet, smartphones and even kitchen appliances, cars and wearable devices.

While social technology usage has matured significantly, there are many business professionals who either haven’t started or aren’t comfortable with the behavior of public sharing.

One of the most common criticisms or objections I hear is that an individual Tweet, Facebook post or image on Instagram isn’t going to make a difference amongst the stream of social noise published every second. In fact, it can seem pretty overwhelming to executives my age, because expectations of their position are generally high and so is their own uncertainty about the impact of social media participation.

Therein lies one of the most profound misconceptions about being active on the social web as an individual or even as a brand: It’s not the single social post that matters, it’s the story that evolves out of the cumulative experience.

Sure, people still share what they had for breakfast (I had a classic oatmeal from Caribou) but they’ll also share other useful information that provides a bigger picture of who the person is, what they stand for and insights into their professional expertise. The conclusion we come to from just one social message is nothing compared to the effect over time.

That’s the disconnect. Don’t evaluate the impact of personal social media participation from the moments shared in individual posts. Think of your social media participation (curation, sharing, engagement, promotion) in terms of a story you’re telling over time.

In my case, my social participation is intended to communicate creativity, domain expertise in the marketing and PR field, thought leadership in those areas and appreciation for our team and customers. Those key areas are the filter for many (not all) of the social messages, interactions, curation and promotion that I do on my combined network of over 250,000 social connections.

When you combine cumulative social messages on different platforms in different media with traditional digital (email) and offline experiences, the playing field is decidedly leveled.

So if you’re tentative about social media participation and evaluating whether you should Tweet, use Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, YouTube or any other social network, think more about the overall story you have to tell about yourself, your brand and especially those around you (co-workers, clients, partners). You’re just doing it 140 characters or one image or Vine video at a time.

As you decide how you’ll engage personally on the social web, think about what it is that you stand for. How do you want to be known? �How can you be the most helpful to others? As you answer those kinds of questions, make choices about the kind of information you share on the social web. Use the answers as a filter for where and with whom you engage.

Think beyond the moments towards the overall story you can use social media to tell. You’ll find it to be a more satisfying and productive experience.

 

Google AdWords Adds Click-to-Call Ads to Conversion Columns

Google AdWords advertisers who are currently using mobile click-to-call ads will now find them listed in the regular Conversion columns, Google announced. This is part of a change Google announced last month to make it easier for advertisers to optimize their bidding strategy for click-to-call.

Now, calls made by customers from an AdWords ad, for both mobile and desktop searchers, will be reported under a newly added column for Estimated Total Conversions.

Click-to-call ads were previously found under a "Phone Call Conversions" column in the AdWords reporting. With the change to the regular conversion column, this means that advertisers will be able to use the many free automated bidding tools from AdWords in order to improve the ads performance as well as to save time while optimizing campaigns.

Google is definitely pushing their click-to-call option, but with 70 percent of mobile searchers calling a business directly from the search results, it could definitely be a winning strategy for advertisers, particularly things like local businesses that are more frequently searched on from a mobile phone. Every month over 40 million phone calls from Google search ads to advertisers. 

These new click-to-call conversions are available in countries where Google has forwarding numbers available. Right now, the forwarding numbers are available in the U.S., UK, Germany, and France.

Google is hosting a webinar today, November 13, at 10 a.m. PT to walk through the Estimated Total Conversion reporting, on phone calls as conversions, as well as best practices for using click-to-call.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Feb. 10-13, 2014: This year's SES London agenda focuses on aligning paid, owned and earned media to help you drive quality traffic and increase conversions.
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*Saver Rate ends Dec 13.

Google AdWords Adds Click-to-Call Ads to Conversion Columns

Google AdWords advertisers who are currently using mobile click-to-call ads will now find them listed in the regular Conversion columns, Google announced. This is part of a change Google announced last month to make it easier for advertisers to optimize their bidding strategy for click-to-call.

Now, calls made by customers from an AdWords ad, for both mobile and desktop searchers, will be reported under a newly added column for Estimated Total Conversions.

Click-to-call ads were previously found under a "Phone Call Conversions" column in the AdWords reporting. With the change to the regular conversion column, this means that advertisers will be able to use the many free automated bidding tools from AdWords in order to improve the ads performance as well as to save time while optimizing campaigns.

Google is definitely pushing their click-to-call option, but with 70 percent of mobile searchers calling a business directly from the search results, it could definitely be a winning strategy for advertisers, particularly things like local businesses that are more frequently searched on from a mobile phone. Every month over 40 million phone calls from Google search ads to advertisers. 

These new click-to-call conversions are available in countries where Google has forwarding numbers available. Right now, the forwarding numbers are available in the U.S., UK, Germany, and France.

Google is hosting a webinar today, November 13, at 10 a.m. PT to walk through the Estimated Total Conversion reporting, on phone calls as conversions, as well as best practices for using click-to-call.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Feb. 10-13, 2014: This year's SES London agenda focuses on aligning paid, owned and earned media to help you drive quality traffic and increase conversions.
Register early and save!
*Saver Rate ends Dec 13.

Top Online Retailers Lag in Mobile Experience [Study]

With the holiday season fast approaching, and the mobile device playing a big role in the shopping experience, online retailers should put their mobile shopper front and center. You might think the big ecommerce brands already have that figured out, but The Search Agency released todayanother iteration of its mobile experience scorecard assessing 100 multichannel retailers to see how well they did when it came to following mobile best practices online.

Out of the 100 brands examined, not one ecommerce site received a perfect score of 5; the average score was just over 3.

Winners included:

REI, which took top honors with a score of 4.74Toys "R" Us, coming in at second with 4.40CVS at third place with a score of 4.28

Which retailer came in dead last? You may be surprised to find out it was Apple, with a score of 0.68, which put it in 100th place.

The Search Agency analyzed the largest online retailers in the United States against seven factors in the mobile retail experience:

Load timeSite formatStore locatorSearch boxSocial mediaAppsClick-to-call

The weighted scorecard looked like this:

Here's a snapshot of the Top 25 that are winning the mobile retail experience:

Of those sites examined, only one out of 100 employed responsive web design (Carters.com), while others with a mobile experience had a dedicated mobile site.

In its report, The Search Agency gave some best practice tips for online retailers regarding their site format and navigation:

Consider using Responsive Web Design (RWD), the mobile configuration recommended by Google. Using RWD "preserves a canonical URL, avoiding any complicated redirects, and simplifies the sharing of web addresses."Although the majority of sites in this report scored highly using dedicated mobile sites, RWD was weighted more heavily because it is the industry standard for rendering sites across devices.By implementing RWD, marketers ensure that their sites can be rendered across all current AND future devices of all dimensions (i.e. wearable technology, etc.).RWD allows you to have a single, dynamic site which allows traffic, authority, and link value to be consolidated to one domain and easily sorted, tracked, and measured through popular Analytics packages.RWD eliminates the need to maintain and monitor several versions of the site, and it consolidates traffic and link value to the canonical version of the site.RWD ensures that all backlinks will lead to a properly rendered site, which improves user experience and site engagement.Include a store locator feature to help consumers find brick-and-mortar store locations quickly and easily while they are on the go.Include a click-to-call feature to allow consumers to easily find a nearby store's phone number to contact a brick-and-mortar location quickly.Place the most important information for consumers at the top of the page or above the fold where viewers can easily find it. Mobile SEO TipsMobile SEO: 5 Ways to Ensure Your Brand's Content is Optimized3 Essentials for Great Mobile SEONew Google Playbook Outlines 5 Essentials of a Mobile Strategy

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Mobile SEO: 5 Ways to Ensure Your Brand's Content is Optimized

Google's recent Hummingbird algorithm and the arrival of KitKat are forcing agencies and brands to stretch their search marketing minds and strategies even further – for the better.

More focus on meaningful content and mobile engagement with content translates into a need for longer-term SEO and content marketing commitments. Clearly the days of quick wins and overnight successes in SEO are indeed an era that is well behind us.

In "Time for a New Definition of SEO", many readers commented with their own insights and opinions about the requirement for a new definition of SEO. The following concept seems to be prevalent:

SEO is the long-term process of enhancing a brand's opportunity for discoverability in search and social, throughout the prospect's buying cycle and across any device.

Understanding searcher behavior by channel, intent by geography, and engagement by content asset throughout the buying cycle is key to a brand's web presence reputation.

Mobile Usage is Forcing a Shift of Search Strategies

It is projected that the number of mobile devices on this planet will surpass the population of the world in the near future. As it stands, according to data available on Wikipedia, there are 6.8 billion mobile devices used by 7 billion people.

Emerging economies such as the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia already have more mobile devices than people. Other countries that exceed the 100 percent threshold include the United States, the UK, France, and Italy.

Marketers and brand leaders need to consider how their brand content is discovered and engaged with by searchers on a mobile device compared to a desktop. For example, on a mobile device geography is more likely taken into consideration.

Additionally, a conversational or voice search is a more likely occurrence on a mobile device versus a desktop. Think about the behavior difference between the two searches. On your desktop you may type "flower shops in New York", while on your mobile device you'd likely speak into your phone and say, "I'm looking for a flower shop in New York."

This behavioral change indicates that consideration needs to be given to:

The keywords used.How the content is consumed.Who is searching for and consuming the content.Their stage in the buying cycle.Conversion rate differences.

"Mobile is probably growing faster than anyone in the room expects," said Google's Distinguished Engineer Matt Cutts at SES San Francisco in September. "Mobile traffic to Google will surpass desktop traffic to Google pretty soon – not in weeks or a few months, but soon."

So it isn't a surprise Google is focusing its algorithm changes on ensuring relevant search results are returned when a search is performed from a mobile device.

Mobile Organic Search Trends

RKG published data recently showing the percentage share of organic search visits across Google, Yahoo, and Bing quarterly from Q2 2012 to Q2 2013. The data essentially shows one quarter of all organic search visits comes from mobile devices, and this trend is increasing.

My company is also tracking mobile organic search traffic trends. Across 6,000 monitored web presences, gShift's data shows the same trend in increasing mobile traffic from January 2013 to October 2013. The amount of organic search traffic from mobile devices was registered at 27 percent and 26 percent in September and October respectively.

Note: this data isn't yet segmented by geography or business type.

Here are five ways brands and agencies can start capitalizing on this mobile trend in search.

1. Your Current SEO or Content Marketing Strategies

If a current SEO and content marketing strategy is being executed on, ensure mobility has been taken into consideration for keyword research and conversion measurement.

If you're thinking of starting an SEO or content marketing strategy, be sure to ask the service provider how they are going to account for the trends in mobile organic search behavior, and how they are going to measure discoverability and engagement of content on a desktop versus a mobile device.

2. Expand Your Keyword Research and Tracking

"(Not provided)" and "(not set)" have made keyword performance tracking much more challenging. This, combined with the fact that a searcher's behavior varies greatly depending on whether their search is executed from a mobile device (typed or spoken) or a desktop device (typed or spoken), means more keywords need to be monitored for discoverability and position change to understand which content asset is potentially being discovered for a grouping of similar keywords.

Groupings of like keywords are key. For example:

Flower shopFlower storeFlower shop New YorkFlower store New YorkFlower shop in New YorkFlower store in New YorkI am looking for a flower shopI am looking for a flower storeI am looking for a flower shop in New YorkI am looking for a flower store in New York3. Track Mobile Segments in Google Analytics

Tracking mobile segments in Google Analytics is key to understanding the actions your visitors are taking from their mobile device and their engagement with your content and your brand and how it differs from a desktop.

"Mobile Traffic", "Mobile and Tablet Traffic" and "Tablet and Desktop Traffic" are built-in segments you can select in Google Analytics. To analyze the behavior of only desktop users on your website, you will need to create a new segment:

Click on the arrow at the top left of your Google Analytics Overview screen to open the Segment Builder.Click on the "+ Create New Segment" button at the top left.Click on "Technology" in the left menu bar.Scroll down to "Device Category" and select "exactly matches" and "desktop".Enter the "Segment Name" at the top (e.g., Desktop Traffic).Click Save.

Now you can select both the mobile and the desktop segments to gain insight into the conversion rate differences between visitors from each source (e.g., Conversion of Time on Page or Number of Pages Visited), and take action to improve your content accordingly.

4. Page-Level and Content-Level Web Presence Analytics are Key

Reporting on the engagement, performance, and discoverability of content, and understanding where optimization opportunities exist, require content-level or web page-level analytics. These metrics include page-specific backlinks, social signals, and conversions.

Again, select the Mobile Traffic and Desktop Traffic segments discussed above, determine if your content is converting higher on mobile or desktop, then seek to understand why.

Track keyword position at the content level to gain insight into keywords the content may be ranking for, and identify opportunities to improve that content for further optimization, discoverability, and engagement.

5. Human Factors of Optimization

All too often we forget to stop looking at the data and metrics and simply attempt to engage with the brand as a human being. Human factors testing across devices is key.

You can take your testing a step further by setting up a focus group and watch how people interact with the brand's web presence from different devices, and what keywords they are using to discover the brand.

Summary

Although traffic from mobile devices will surpass traffic from desktop devices in the very near future, there is still ample time to take inventory of your web presence discoverability across devices and set the SEO and content marketing wheels in motion to ensure maximum reach and engagement.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Feb. 10-13, 2014: This year's SES London agenda focuses on aligning paid, owned and earned media to help you drive quality traffic and increase conversions.
Register early and save!
*Saver Rate ends Dec 13.

Cyber Monday Optimization Checklist

If you're in the ecommerce space, this is one of the busiest times of year for your business and your website. It's about to get even more hectic from here on out.

The Monday after Thanksgiving, otherwise known as Cyber Monday, falls on December 2 this year. If you're keeping count, that's about two weeks away.

According to a Google-conducted survey, 49 percent said they knew when they would begin the shopping race, with 26 percent citing Black Friday and Cyber Monday as the starting line.

Technically, a comprehensive Cyber Monday marketing plan would have began months ago. However, if you're wondering if there's still time to prepare for the retail event of the year, then the answer is yes.

Marketers can still implement the following tips to ready your website, drive more visibility, and connect with your target consumer in time for Cyber Monday to claim your fair share of the estimated $82 billion that will be spent in online holiday shopping in 2013.

Mobile Considerations

It's no secret that shoppers are mobile this holiday season. Newly released data from Google showed 76 percent of smartphone owners plan to use them for holiday browsing this year, and one in four smartphone owners plan to make a purchase on their device.

Consider the following:

Shop.org's eHoliday survey showed online retailers gearing up for the growing trend, with about 57 percent saying they had invested in optimizing their mobile websites.If your website isn't mobile ready, it's a bit too close to Cyber Monday to forge a responsive web design overhaul, but there are other ways you can ready your site for mobile shoppers.Focus on small changes that can impact the user experience on revenue-driving pages and pages you'll anticipate will receive traffic during Cyber Monday. A big part of this user experience equation is site speed.

In fact, Google's Matt Cutts recently reinforced the importance of site speed during his talk at PubCon, stating Google is less likely to rank sites that are slow on mobile devices.

It's important you first get a snapshot of how your site is performing in terms of page load times. You can access this in Google Analytics in the Behavior reports section under Site Speed > Speed Suggestions.

These suggestions will take you to the PageSpeed Insights tool, which gives detailed recommendations on how to make the page faster for both mobile and desktop devices. It's important to consider both; Google reports 80 percent of consumers will use more than one device at this holiday shopping season, with 84 percent starting on one device and finishing on another.

Technical Considerations

If your ecommerce website isn't set up to handle the influx of traffic you may be receiving on Cyber Monday, you could be in real trouble. Back in 2011, a slew of top retailers online lost Cyber Monday traffic when their sites crashed, including Brookstone and Nordstrom. Just this year, Amazon.com was down for approximately 30 minutes, which reportedly cost the company $66,000 per minute.

Here are a few simple ways to ensure your site is prepped for Cyber Monday so your site visitor's have a good experience:

Time your promotions well. Stagger email communications, for example, to groups of users instead of all at once to temper large quantities of traffic.Check Google Webmaster Tools (GWT). Check for any 404s your visitors might be incurring by heading to GWT under Crawl > Crawl Errors.

Evaluate server performance. Work with your IT team to ensure the infrastructure is set up to handle spikes in traffic. You might consider a content delivery network (CDN) like those powered by Akamai to enhance your site's performance.The Marketer's Cyber Monday Optimization and Marketing Plan

In a perfect world, most marketers would have started optimizing organic search marketing campaign months ago in anticipation of Cyber Monday. However, there are still steps you can take to gain more visibility and connect with your target consumer.

1. Understand Popular Queries

First and foremost, apply the knowledge you have about what's trending among consumers to your products' marketing plan.

To help understand search volume for queries that are important to your business, you can use Google Trends to identify queries that surged on last year's Cyber Monday, and then decide whether they might apply again this year.

For example, Google reported the search term "free shipping" emerged during last year's holiday season and peaked on Cyber Monday.

Shop.org data suggested the demand for shipping would continue this year, showing 16.3 percent of online retailers surveyed pledged to offer free holiday shipping as early as October 28.

Other ways to glean keyword data that might be important to your business this Cyber Monday is looking back at your analytics from Cyber Monday last year, seeing which keywords drove traffic [pre-"(not provided)" in Google].

2. Benchmark Where You're at, Plan Accordingly

SEO takes time to move the needle and build visibility for your business around certain topics. Being this close to Cyber Monday means applying a discerning eye on the queries you choose to target organically. Of course, adding a PPC campaign in preparation for Cyber Monday is a great way to capture more traffic faster, but that's another post.

After you excavate query data to benchmark where your site is today, you can then use Google's Keyword Planner to discover search volume and bid values on keywords. This will help you gauge how competitive a given keyword might be, and then weigh that against the timeline you're up against.

You may want to:

Focus on those keywords that aren't the most competitive, but are still important to your business – your "second-tier" keywords. If you're in Position 5 in the search results for a second-tier query, for example, you may have enough time to get yourself to Position 4 for Cyber Monday.Consider the competitive landscape. While evaluating keywords and the subsequent on-page optimization of important pages on your site is the first step in gearing up quickly for Cyber Monday, understanding the competition comes next. What are you up against?

The important thing is that you're looking at multiple avenues as a means to become as competitive as possible in a short amount of time.

3. Content: Focus on How You Can Help Your Consumer Now

Take what you've learned about what your audience is looking for during their shopping quest and consider how you can help your target consumers now.

Look at the content on the pages you're investing efforts into and evaluate the user experience. Does the content answer the query well? Your goal is to make the shopping experience for that product the best it can be.

Consider an aggressive content creation plan that facilitates the decision-making process for your target consumer ahead of Cyber Monday. Answer common problems people have about which gifts to buy, how certain products compare and so on. Add this content to your product pages and push them out via social media to drive traffic.

Social Media: Your Cyber Monday Content Vessel

The more social signals your content has in the form of endorsements and shares, the more search engines like Google can take into account the quality of that content, and act accordingly. In fact, in a recent Google+ Hangout, Eric Enge of Stone Temple Consulting suggested Google's Hummingbird algorithm enables Google to better make use of social signals now than ever before.

But it's not just about driving people back to the content on your site; it's about having a social media plan specific to your audience on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and so on. Make sure you understand the behavior within those social networks and what sort of deals people would be looking for in advance of Cyber Monday.

Don't forget about other channels you can explore to drive visibility to your site, including image campaigns for your products on Pinterest, or videos on YouTube for brand awareness, to name a couple.

Pinterest is especially interesting for Cyber Monday in that it is image-heavy and ripe for consumers to view products. Consider the following tips:

Align your Pinterest marketing with the products you wish to sell on Cyber Monday. Then, make sure you understand the audience on Pinterest, and what they're looking for.For each audience, identify a handful of themes to start Pinterest boards around. Pin images that are visually attractive and aligned with your Cyber Monday strategy. But don't aim to sell. Instead, inspire your users. If you're selling home goods, think décor ideas, boards that represent "moods" or DIY projects.Holiday Marketing: Better Late Than Never

Remember, Cyber Monday is just the beginning stage of the holiday shopping season. Going back to Google's survey data, we see the majority of holiday shoppers are still unsure when they'd begin the shopping process.

Conclusion

You still have time to refine your Cyber Monday marketing plan and even beyond through the 2013 holiday season. Target your consumers, starting now, by becoming an integral part of their decision-making process, and taking steps to ensure your brand is more visible in more places online.

Cyber Monday checklist:

Consider small improvements you can make to your site for your mobile audience, even if you don't have time for a responsive design overhaul.Give the back-end of your website a health checkup to ensure it's ready to receive the influx of traffic it could face on Cyber Monday.Evaluate what's feasible in terms of your organic marketing and the timeline you're working with, and plan accordingly.Create social-specific campaigns and great content that helps the buyer make a decision about his or her Cyber Monday purchase.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Feb. 10-13, 2014: This year's SES London agenda focuses on aligning paid, owned and earned media to help you drive quality traffic and increase conversions.
Register early and save!
*Saver Rate ends Dec 13.

Cyber Monday Optimization Checklist

If you're in the ecommerce space, this is one of the busiest times of year for your business and your website. It's about to get even more hectic from here on out.

The Monday after Thanksgiving, otherwise known as Cyber Monday, falls on December 2 this year. If you're keeping count, that's about two weeks away.

According to a Google-conducted survey, 49 percent said they knew when they would begin the shopping race, with 26 percent citing Black Friday and Cyber Monday as the starting line.

Technically, a comprehensive Cyber Monday marketing plan would have began months ago. However, if you're wondering if there's still time to prepare for the retail event of the year, then the answer is yes.

Marketers can still implement the following tips to ready your website, drive more visibility, and connect with your target consumer in time for Cyber Monday to claim your fair share of the estimated $82 billion that will be spent in online holiday shopping in 2013.

Mobile Considerations

It's no secret that shoppers are mobile this holiday season. Newly released data from Google showed 76 percent of smartphone owners plan to use them for holiday browsing this year, and one in four smartphone owners plan to make a purchase on their device.

Consider the following:

Shop.org's eHoliday survey showed online retailers gearing up for the growing trend, with about 57 percent saying they had invested in optimizing their mobile websites.If your website isn't mobile ready, it's a bit too close to Cyber Monday to forge a responsive web design overhaul, but there are other ways you can ready your site for mobile shoppers.Focus on small changes that can impact the user experience on revenue-driving pages and pages you'll anticipate will receive traffic during Cyber Monday. A big part of this user experience equation is site speed.

In fact, Google's Matt Cutts recently reinforced the importance of site speed during his talk at PubCon, stating Google is less likely to rank sites that are slow on mobile devices.

It's important you first get a snapshot of how your site is performing in terms of page load times. You can access this in Google Analytics in the Behavior reports section under Site Speed > Speed Suggestions.

These suggestions will take you to the PageSpeed Insights tool, which gives detailed recommendations on how to make the page faster for both mobile and desktop devices. It's important to consider both; Google reports 80 percent of consumers will use more than one device at this holiday shopping season, with 84 percent starting on one device and finishing on another.

Technical Considerations

If your ecommerce website isn't set up to handle the influx of traffic you may be receiving on Cyber Monday, you could be in real trouble. Back in 2011, a slew of top retailers online lost Cyber Monday traffic when their sites crashed, including Brookstone and Nordstrom. Just this year, Amazon.com was down for approximately 30 minutes, which reportedly cost the company $66,000 per minute.

Here are a few simple ways to ensure your site is prepped for Cyber Monday so your site visitor's have a good experience:

Time your promotions well. Stagger email communications, for example, to groups of users instead of all at once to temper large quantities of traffic.Check Google Webmaster Tools (GWT). Check for any 404s your visitors might be incurring by heading to GWT under Crawl > Crawl Errors.

Evaluate server performance. Work with your IT team to ensure the infrastructure is set up to handle spikes in traffic. You might consider a content delivery network (CDN) like those powered by Akamai to enhance your site's performance.The Marketer's Cyber Monday Optimization and Marketing Plan

In a perfect world, most marketers would have started optimizing organic search marketing campaign months ago in anticipation of Cyber Monday. However, there are still steps you can take to gain more visibility and connect with your target consumer.

1. Understand Popular Queries

First and foremost, apply the knowledge you have about what's trending among consumers to your products' marketing plan.

To help understand search volume for queries that are important to your business, you can use Google Trends to identify queries that surged on last year's Cyber Monday, and then decide whether they might apply again this year.

For example, Google reported the search term "free shipping" emerged during last year's holiday season and peaked on Cyber Monday.

Shop.org data suggested the demand for shipping would continue this year, showing 16.3 percent of online retailers surveyed pledged to offer free holiday shipping as early as October 28.

Other ways to glean keyword data that might be important to your business this Cyber Monday is looking back at your analytics from Cyber Monday last year, seeing which keywords drove traffic [pre-"(not provided)" in Google].

2. Benchmark Where You're at, Plan Accordingly

SEO takes time to move the needle and build visibility for your business around certain topics. Being this close to Cyber Monday means applying a discerning eye on the queries you choose to target organically. Of course, adding a PPC campaign in preparation for Cyber Monday is a great way to capture more traffic faster, but that's another post.

After you excavate query data to benchmark where your site is today, you can then use Google's Keyword Planner to discover search volume and bid values on keywords. This will help you gauge how competitive a given keyword might be, and then weigh that against the timeline you're up against.

You may want to:

Focus on those keywords that aren't the most competitive, but are still important to your business – your "second-tier" keywords. If you're in Position 5 in the search results for a second-tier query, for example, you may have enough time to get yourself to Position 4 for Cyber Monday.Consider the competitive landscape. While evaluating keywords and the subsequent on-page optimization of important pages on your site is the first step in gearing up quickly for Cyber Monday, understanding the competition comes next. What are you up against?

The important thing is that you're looking at multiple avenues as a means to become as competitive as possible in a short amount of time.

3. Content: Focus on How You Can Help Your Consumer Now

Take what you've learned about what your audience is looking for during their shopping quest and consider how you can help your target consumers now.

Look at the content on the pages you're investing efforts into and evaluate the user experience. Does the content answer the query well? Your goal is to make the shopping experience for that product the best it can be.

Consider an aggressive content creation plan that facilitates the decision-making process for your target consumer ahead of Cyber Monday. Answer common problems people have about which gifts to buy, how certain products compare and so on. Add this content to your product pages and push them out via social media to drive traffic.

Social Media: Your Cyber Monday Content Vessel

The more social signals your content has in the form of endorsements and shares, the more search engines like Google can take into account the quality of that content, and act accordingly. In fact, in a recent Google+ Hangout, Eric Enge of Stone Temple Consulting suggested Google's Hummingbird algorithm enables Google to better make use of social signals now than ever before.

But it's not just about driving people back to the content on your site; it's about having a social media plan specific to your audience on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and so on. Make sure you understand the behavior within those social networks and what sort of deals people would be looking for in advance of Cyber Monday.

Don't forget about other channels you can explore to drive visibility to your site, including image campaigns for your products on Pinterest, or videos on YouTube for brand awareness, to name a couple.

Pinterest is especially interesting for Cyber Monday in that it is image-heavy and ripe for consumers to view products. Consider the following tips:

Align your Pinterest marketing with the products you wish to sell on Cyber Monday. Then, make sure you understand the audience on Pinterest, and what they're looking for.For each audience, identify a handful of themes to start Pinterest boards around. Pin images that are visually attractive and aligned with your Cyber Monday strategy. But don't aim to sell. Instead, inspire your users. If you're selling home goods, think décor ideas, boards that represent "moods" or DIY projects.Holiday Marketing: Better Late Than Never

Remember, Cyber Monday is just the beginning stage of the holiday shopping season. Going back to Google's survey data, we see the majority of holiday shoppers are still unsure when they'd begin the shopping process.

Conclusion

You still have time to refine your Cyber Monday marketing plan and even beyond through the 2013 holiday season. Target your consumers, starting now, by becoming an integral part of their decision-making process, and taking steps to ensure your brand is more visible in more places online.

Cyber Monday checklist:

Consider small improvements you can make to your site for your mobile audience, even if you don't have time for a responsive design overhaul.Give the back-end of your website a health checkup to ensure it's ready to receive the influx of traffic it could face on Cyber Monday.Evaluate what's feasible in terms of your organic marketing and the timeline you're working with, and plan accordingly.Create social-specific campaigns and great content that helps the buyer make a decision about his or her Cyber Monday purchase.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Feb. 10-13, 2014: This year's SES London agenda focuses on aligning paid, owned and earned media to help you drive quality traffic and increase conversions.
Register early and save!
*Saver Rate ends Dec 13.